瑞士 医疗耗材 供应商

Roche Holding AG

Pharmaceuticals

Roche was founded in 1896 in Basel by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, who bet on a business model that was radical at the time: producing standardized medicines in factories instead of mixing them in pharmacies. The company's first hit was a cough syrup; its first blockbuster was a vitamin product in the 1930s; and its modern identity was forged in the 1960s with the discovery of Valium — the most prescribed drug in the world at the time. Today Roche is the world's largest biotech company and a leader in oncology: its cancer drugs — including Herceptin, Avastin, and the immunotherapy Tecentriq — have treated millions of patients, and its Hemlibra transformed hemophilia care. Uniquely among pharma giants, Roche is equally powerful in diagnostics: its cobas analyzers and PCR tests run in hospital labs worldwide, and its rapid COVID-19 tests during the pandemic made it a household name. This pharma-plus-diagnostics combination — pairing therapy with the tests that identify who needs it — is Roche's signature strategy. With about 100,000 employees and annual revenue near CHF 60 billion (US$67 billion), Roche is a majority owner of Genentech, the US biotech pioneer, giving it a deep pipeline in gene therapy and personalized medicine. Its biggest challenge is the patent cliff — several blockbusters face biosimilar competition — but its diagnostics franchise and oncology pipeline keep the Swiss giant among the world's most valuable healthcare companies.

Novartis AG

Pharmaceuticals

Novartis was created in 1996 by the merger of two Swiss pharmaceutical dynasties, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz — both of which traced their roots to dye factories in the 1850s Basel chemical industry. The name was coined from the Latin 'novae artes', meaning 'new skills', signaling a fresh start for a company with an unusually deep European pedigree. The company's modern focus is prescription medicines across four therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, renal and metabolic (its heart failure drug Entresto and cholesterol treatment Leqvio); immunology (the blockbuster psoriasis and arthritis drug Cosentyx); neuroscience (the schizophrenia treatment and the Alzheimer's drug Leqembi, developed with Eisai); and oncology (the targeted cancer drugs Kisqali and Pluvicto). Its cell and gene therapy division pioneered CAR-T cancer treatments like Kymriah, which engineers a patient's own immune cells to attack tumors. Headquartered in Basel with about 76,000 employees and annual revenue near US$52 billion, Novartis has deliberately streamlined itself — selling its generics business Sandoz in 2023 and its eye care unit — to become a pure innovative medicines company. With one of the industry's deepest pipelines, the 25-year-old company built on 170-year-old roots is a pillar of the global pharma landscape.